During the construction or redecoration of a building interior rooms are finished or refinished by processes such as painting, lacquering, varnishing, staining or the like. These processes, upon consideration of the large flat surfaces normally found in a room, appear to be a quick and simple job. However, there are many features, such as door hardware and wall electrical hardware, which must be protected or masked from contamination by these process. The masking of these features is an especially time consuming and tedious process.
Usually, a painter or finisher will cover the hardware with numerous small pieces of masking tape to protect it from unwanted contamination. Excess masking tape is pruned using a sharp knife or razor blade. The application and pruning of the masking tape is considerably time consuming and, if the painter is not meticulous when pruning, useless because the hardware still becomes contaminated. Furthermore, removing all of the applied masking tape is another slow tedious process.
Many individuals, especially amateur household painters, omit masking the hardware features and either paint over or adjacent the hardware feature. If the hardware feature is painted, then the individual must spend extra time removing the unwanted paint. If the individual paints adjacent the hardware feature, then the painter must still spend extra time with a detail brush painting missed areas, and still may contaminate the hardware feature.
Many commercial painters and finishers will bid projects out on a fixed fee basis. Thus, the faster the commercial painter can finish a job, the higher the profit margin. In order to maximize their profit margin, commercial painters may skimp on the meticulous preparation currently necessary for masking the hardware features. The result of this practice is inferior quality services in which paint contaminates the hardware features or the wall is not completely covered.
Thus, it is recognized that there is a need for devices which provide quick and easy masking of room and door features for painting, varnishing lacquering, staining and other processes. The prior art reveals several examples of devices which attempt to alleviate this problem of protection door and room hardware.
In U.S. Pat. No. 4,691,409 issued to Torgerson et al., an elastic door hinge mask is disclosed which stretches to cover a door hinge pin barrel. The first disclosed embodiment of Torgerson uses an elastic body which resembles an inflatable balloon with a slit. Attached near one end of the slit in the elastic body is a covering flap with securing hooks at the distal end of the covering flap. The door hinge pin barrel is inserted within the elastic body, through the slit, and the covering flap is pulled around to cover the opposite side of the pin barrel. The securing hooks attach to the door hinge butt plates and secure the covering flap into place. The securing hooks may be replaced with a securing loop to perform the same function. Alternately, the elastic body of the Torgerson invention may be in the shape of a hood or cowl. The closed end of the cowl shaped elastic body is placed over one end of the pin barrel and the device is stretched around a second end of the pin barrel and up the opposite side. A securing strap is attached to an open neck end of the cowl shaped elastic body and wraps around the first end of the pin barrel thereby securing the elastic body around the hinge pin barrel. Finally, the Torgerson device may be a single rectangularly shaped elastic body with a first strap being attached close to a first end of the elastic body and a second strap being attached in an offset position from a second, opposite end of the elastic body. The first strap attaches to a first end of the pin barrel, the elastic body wraps around the pin barrel, and the second strap secures the entire device to the first end of the pin barrel. The Torgerson devices are fine for protecting the door hinge pin barrel, however, they cannot protect the remainder of the door hinge, the butt plate. Moreover, other items of door and room hardware need to be protected. Thus, there is a continuing need for devices which protect more than the door hinge pin barrel.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,056,191, issued to Love, discloses a door hinge paint mask which is designed to protect both the pin barrel and the butt plates of a door hinge. The Love device is primarily a thin flat rectangular piece with projecting tabs at top and bottom ends. An adhesive on an underside of the rectangular piece attaches the mask to the door hinge. The rectangular section completely covers the hinge butt plate without overlap onto the surface to be painted. The projecting tabs secure the device by wrapping over the ends of the door hinge pin barrel. Furthermore, the Love masks include score lines which allow the mask to be separated into subparts to cover the back side of the door hinge pin barrel. The Love device cannot easily be used to mask and protect other pieces of room and door hardware.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,198,031 issued to Derstine discloses two piece masking system for door hinges. A first mask protects the door hinge butt plate, while a second mask protects the door hinge pin barrel. The first mask is a magnetically attached flexible, rectangular section which includes a tab to remove the mask after the painting is finished. The second mask is an elongated mask with a substantially horseshoe shaped cross section. One end of the second mask is capped to both secure the mask to the pin barrel and protect the top of the pin barrel during painting. The opposite end is open to allow entrance of the pin barrel when mounting the second mask. It can be seen that the Derstine masking system is complex and expensive to manufacture. Thus, there is a continuing need for devices which simplify the masking of door and room hardware.
While the above discussed devices are designed to be used in situ, or with the door hung on the door hinge, there are devices which are designed to protect portions of the door hinge with the door removed from the frame.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,224,240 issued to Smith et al. teaches a single mask molded from a rigid thermoplastic resin. The Smith mask has a first section which protects the door hinge pin barrel and a second section which is flexibly attached and which protects door hinge butt plates. The first section is a bifurcated enclosure with the two parts flexibly hinged together and the second section is merely a rectangular cover for the butt plates. The removal of the door from the frame makes use of the Smith device a time consuming process, especially when coupled with the need to re-hang the door after the painting is finished.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,432,979 to Harper discloses a rigid protector with an open tubular first section and an attached rectangular second section. The user simply slides the open end of the first section over the top of the pin barrel and aligns the second section over the butt plate.
It can be seen from the above discussion of the background and examples of prior art in the field, that there is a continuing need for new and improved means for protecting door and room hardware during painting and other like processes.